The Youth Violence Commission

Important update on final report

The Youth Violence Commission team hopes this message finds you well in difficult times.

The situation around coronavirus is unfolding rapidly, with countries around the world and millions of people’s lives being affected in unprecedented ways.

After careful consideration, we have decided to delay the launch of the Youth Violence Commission’s final report. This was an extremely difficult decision to take, not least because of how passionately the team feels about the recommendations in the report, and how important it is that these recommendations are acted upon.

We believe that in this precise moment of time, however, people’s attention is rightly focused (whether at a personal, family, community, national or international level) on mitigating the worst effects of the pandemic. We do not think it is right to formally launch the report under these circumstances, particularly when the situation is changing so rapidly on a day-to-day basis in ways that are difficult to predict.

We strongly believe that there will be a time in the not-too-distant future, however, when we will formally launch the report and do our very best to ensure the Commission’s main findings are communicated as widely as possible and our recommendations acted upon.

We would like to take this opportunity to express our sincerest thanks to everyone who has supported the Commission up until this point. Without the kindness, generosity and openness demonstrated by so many individuals and organisations, the Commission’s work would simply not have been possible.

Please look out for one another in the weeks and months ahead.

Very best wishes,
The Youth Violence Commission team

The background and remit of the Commission

Following a debate in Parliament, a Cross Party Commission was launched in 2017 to examine the root causes of youth violence in England, Scotland and Wales. The Commission is consulting young people and working with academics and practitioners to better understand how serious violence manifests itself in many young people’s lives. The Commission has the support of MPs from across political parties but it is not funded by Government, nor is it an All Party Parliamentary Group.

In July 2018, the Youth Violence Commission produced its interim policy report with recommendations to address serious, youth violence issues. You can read the report here. Following City Hall’s announcement in September 2018 that the Mayor will be establishing a London Violence Reduction Unit, the Commission has now decided to refocus much of its resource and effort over the coming months to ensuring that the London Violence Reduction Unit gets the best start possible.

Whilst London has had particular challenges this year, serious youth violence is not confined to the capital. Our Commission has always been a national one and we will continue to develop our recommendations as they apply to the UK more widely. In particular, the issue of young people and mental health was one of the most recurring and significant themes in our work to date. We hope to work closely with young people and experts on this particular issue as we take the Commission forward. We will provide further details of our full work programme in due course.